Garbage men in Stockholm, Sweden, were just doing their job—when they noticed something strange about the latest truckload of garbage.

The workers were just moments away from delivering a compactor full of garbage to an incinerator when suddenly they heard a strange noise. It seemed to sound like a small cat desperately meowing.

The men quickly understood what had happened—an actual KITTEN had somehow gotten stuck inside the compactor, buried under five tons of rotting food and waste.

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Bekir Mercil, who was part of the team of sanitation workers who saved the cat, said, "We had a shovel to remove the waste as carefully as we could without doing any harm and a broom to try and get the kitten out. Eventually we got it out and saved it, which was a great feeling."

The team dug through the putrid pile of garbage for more than half an hour before they managed to pull the little guy out, who was covered in stinking garbage juice. Blegh! Poor little kitten!

Mercil said, "If we'd not gone to save the cat it would have headed for the incinerator, and you can just imagine what would have happened."

He continued, "It's a lovely cat as well—if we didn't already have two dogs we would have taken it for ourselves but thankfully there's a home out there for him already."

The fortunate feline, who has since been named Melker, was taken to a nearby animal shelter right after it was found, and soon after, a staff member from a veterinary clinic decided to adopt him.